One of the AFL’s most sought-after out of contract players, key forward Ben King, is off the trade table after re-committing to stay with Gold Coast.
King’s new two-year deal is worth about a million dollars per year to remain with the Suns – according to two sources with knowledge of the contract but who weren’t authorised to speak on it publicly. The Suns staved off interest from Victorian clubs trying to lure the athletic tall back home to Melbourne. St Kilda, where his twin brother Max plays, have long spoken of a desire to unite the brothers at Moorabbin.
Collingwood, Sydney and Richmond also remain in the market for quality key forwards. The Magpies and Swans both made pitches for high-flying Bulldogs key forward Aaron Naughton.
Gold Coast’s Ben King has signed a two-year contract extension.Credit: AFL Photos
The Suns confirmed the re-signing to this masthead.
Both the Suns’ list boss Craig Cameron and King’s manager Robbie D’Orazio were comfortable with the two-year deal, despite a trend for emerging players to commit to long-term contracts. King will be eligible for free agency when next out of contract at the end of 2026.
Given the heat in the market for key forwards, the decision by the 23-year-old King to re-sign will intensify interest in emerging Western Bulldogs star forward Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, who is out of contract at season’s end.
Naughton was also due to be out of contract at the end of this season, but the 24-year-old signed an eight-year extension on an average of about a million dollars a year at the end of last season. This takes him through until the end of 2032.
And now there is one. After Todd Marshall, Aaron Naughton and now Ben King have re-signed only Jamarra Ugle-Hagan remains out of contract of the big four key forwards who were due to come out of contract at year’s end.Credit: AFL Photos, Getty Images
King, Naughton, Ugle-Hagan and Port’s Todd Marshall were the four hotly sought-after big key forwards due to come out of contract at the end of this year. Marshall signed a new five-year deal earlier this month, meaning of the quartet only Ugle-Hagan has yet to sign an extension.
The decision by King to re-commit continues a trend for the Suns in managing to re-sign the players they want to keep after a period of bleeding elite talent out of the club. Izak Rankine, who left at the end of the 2022 season to return home to Adelaide, is the only player in recent years whom the club was desperate to keep but unable to re-sign.
The decision also reinforces the excitement in the playing group engendered by the arrival of triple premiership coach Damien Hardwick.
The Suns’ new style of play under Hardwick, with a strong Richmond flavour of a more open forward line and faster ball movement – albeit far from bedded-in yet on the evidence of their first practice match against the Brisbane Lions on Thursday night – should favour the athletic tall forward.
Taken at pick No.6 in the 2018 national draft, King has played 73 games and booted 129 goals for the Suns since debuting in his first season in 2019. He missed the 2022 season after doing his ACL and needing a knee reconstruction.
He had a minor knee issue at the end of last season and missed the final three matches but is fully recovered and will be set to play against Richmond in the club’s season opener.
